AEM/Scene7 integration versus Dynamic Media

AEM users have a choice between two solutions to work with dynamic media: Either integrating their instance of AEM with Scene7 or using the Dynamic Media solution that is integrated into AEM.

Use the following criteria to determine which solution to choose:

If you are an existing Scene7 customer whose rich media assets reside in S7 for publishing and delivery, but you want to integrate those assets with Sites (WCM) authoring and/or AEM Assets for management, then use the AEM/Scene7 point-to-point integration described in this document.

If you are a new AEM customer who has rich media delivery needs, select the Dynamic Media option. This option makes the most sense if you do not have an existing S7 account and many assets stored in that system.

In certain cases, you may want to use both solutions. The dual-use scenario describes that scenario.

AEM/Scene7 point-to-point integration

When you work with assets in this solution, you do one of the following:

Upload assets directly to Scene7 and then access via the Scene7 content browser for page authoring or

Upload to AEM Assets and then enable automatic publishing to S7; you access via Assets content browser for page authoring

The components you use for this integration are found in the Scene7 component area in Design mode.

AEM Dynamic Media

AEM Dynamic Media is the unification of S7 features directly within the AEM platform.

When you work with assets in this solution, you follow this workflow:

Upload single image and video assets directly to AEM.

Encode videos directly within AEM.

Build image-based sets directly within AEM.

If applicable, add interactivity to images or videos.

The components you use for Dynamic Media are found in the Dynamic Media component area in Design mode. They include the following:

Dynamic Media - The Dynamic Media component is smart - depending on whether you add an image or a video, you have various options. The component supports image presets, image-based viewers such as image sets, spin sets, mixed media sets, and video. In addition, the viewer is responsive - the size of the screen changes automatically based on screen size. All viewers are HTML5 viewers.

Interactive Media - The Interactive Media component is for those assets, such as carousel banners, interactive images, and interactive video, that have interactivity on them such hotspots or image maps. This component is smart - depending on whether you add an image or a video, you have various options. In addition, the viewer is responsive - the size of the screen changes automatically based on screen size. All viewers are HTML5 viewers.

Dual-Use Scenario

Out of the box, you can use both Dynamic Media and Scene7 integration features of AEM simultaneously. The Use cases table that follows describes when you turn certain areas on and off.

(Optional) Set up video in Scene7 configuration. You can enable video encoding for either or both Dynamic Media and Scene7 simultaneously. Dynamic renditions are used for preview and playback locally in AEM instance, whereas Scene7 video renditions are generated and stored on Scene7 servers. When setting up video encoding services for both Dynamic Media and Scene7, apply a video processing profile to the Scene7 asset folder.

Limitations

When you have both Scene7 and Dynamic Media enabled, there are the following limitations:

Manually uploading to Scene7 by selecting an asset and dragging it to a Scene7 component on an AEM page does not work.

Even though AEM-Scene7 synced assets are updated to Scene7 automatically when the asset is edited in Assets, a rollback action does not trigger a new upload, hence Scene7 would not get the latest version immediately after a rollback. The workaround is to edit again once rollback is complete.

If you need to use Dynamic Media for one use case and Scene7 integration for another use case, so that the Dynamic Media assets do not interact with the Scene7 system, then do not to apply the Scene7 configuration to the Dynamic Media folder, or the Dynamic Media configuration (processing profile) to a Scene7 folder.

Best Practices for Integrating Scene7 with AEM

When integrating Scene7 with AEM, there are some important best practices that need to be observed in the following areas:

Test-driving your integration

Adobe recommends that you test-drive your integration by having your root folder pointing to a subfolder only rather than an entire company.

Caution:

Importing assets from an existing Scene7 company account may take a long time to show in AEM. Ensure that you designate a folder in Scene7 that does not have too many assets (for example, the root folder will often have too many assets and may crash your system).

Uploading assets from AEM Assets versus from Scene7

You can upload assets either by using the Assets (digital asset management) functionality or by accessing Scene7 directly in AEM via the S7 content browser. Which one you choose depends on the following factors:

S7 asset types that AEM Assets does not yet support have to be added to an AEM website from Scene7 directly, via the S7 content browser, for example, image templates.

For asset types that are supported by both AEM Assets and Scene7, deciding how to upload them depends on the following:

Where the assets are today AND

How important managing them in a common repository is

If the assets are already in Scene7 and managing them in a common repository is not as important, then exporting them to AEM Assets only to sync them back to Scene7 for delivery would be an unnecessary roundtrip. Otherwise, keeping assets in a single repository and syncing to Scene7 only for delivery may be preferable.

Configuring Scene7 integration

You can configure AEM to upload assets to Scene7. Assets from a CQ target folder can be uploaded (automatically or manually) from AEM to a Scene7 company account.

To configure Scene7 to integrate with AEM, you need to complete the following steps:

Define a cloud configuration, which defines the mapping between a Scene7 folder and an Assets folder. You need to complete this step even if you only want one-way (AEM Assets to Scene7) synchronization.

This section covers how to perform all of these steps and lists important limitations.

How synchronization between Scene7 and AEM Assets works

When setting up AEM Assets and Scene7 synchronization, it is important to understand the following:

Uploading to Scene7 from AEM Assets

There is a designated synchronization folder in AEM for Scene7 uploads.

Uploads to Scene7 can be automated if the digital assets are placed in the designated synchronization folder.

The folder and subfolder structure in AEM is replicated in Scene7.

Note:

AEM embeds all the metadata as XMP before uploading it to Scene7, so all properties on the metadata node are available in Scene7 as XMP.

Known limitations and design implications

With the synchronization between AEM Assets and Scene7, there are currently the following limitations/design implications:

Limitation/design implication

Description

1 designated synchronization (target) folder

You can only have one designated folder per company in AEM for Scene7 uploads. You can create multiple configurations if you need to have access to more than one company account in Scene7.

Folder structure

If you delete a synced folder with assets, all Scene7 remote assets are deleted but the folder remains.

Ad-hoc folder

Assets that reside outside the target folder that are manually uploaded to Scene7 in WCM are automatically placed in a separate ad-hoc folder on Scene7. You configure this in the cloud configuration in AEM.

Mixed media

Mixed media sets appear in AEM although they are not supported in AEM.

PDFs

Generated PDFs from eCatalogs in Scene7 will get imported into the CQ target folder.

UI refreshing

When synchronizing between AEM and Scene7, be sure to refresh the user interface to view changes.

Video thumbnails

If uploading a video to AEM Assets for encoding via Scene7, the video thumbnails and encoded videos may take some time to be available in AEM Assets, depending on video processing time.

Target subfolders

If you are using subfolders within the target folder, ensure that you either use unique names for each asset (regardless of location) or you configure Scene7 (in the Setup area) to not overwrite assets regardless of location.

Otherwise, assets with the same name that are uploaded to a Scene7 target subfolder are uploaded, but the same-named asset in the target folder is deleted.

Configuring Scene7 servers

If you run AEM behind a proxy or have special firewall settings, you may need to explicitly enable the hosts of the different regions. Servers are managed in content in /etc/cloudservices/scene7/endpoints and can be customized as required. Click a URL and then edit to change the URL, if necessary. In previous versions of AEM, these values were hard-coded.

If you navigate to /etc/cloudservices/scene7/endpoints.html, you see the servers listed (and can edit them by clicking on the URL):

Creating a cloud configuration for Scene7

A cloud configuration defines the mapping between a Scene7 folder and an AEM Assets folder. It needs to be configured to synchronize AEM Assets with Scene7. See How Synchronization Works for more information.

Caution:

Importing assets from an existing Scene7 company account may take a long time to show in AEM. Ensure that you designate a folder in Scene7 that does not have too many assets (for example, the root folder will often have too many assets).

If you would like to test drive the integration, you may want to have the root folder point to a subfolder only, instead of the entire company.

Note:

You can have multiple configurations: one cloud configuration represents one user at a Scene7 company. If you want to access other Scene7 companies or users, you need to create multiple configurations.

To configure AEM to be able to publish assets to Scene7, perform the following steps:

In the Title field, and optionally in the Name field, enter the appropriate information. Click Create.

Note:

When creating additional configurations, the parent configuration field displays.

Do not change the parent configuration. Changing the parent configuration can break the integration.

Enter the email address, password, and region of your Scene7 account and click Connect to Scene7. You are connected to the Scene7 server and the dialog expands with more options.

Enter the Company name and Root Path (this is the published server name together with any path you want to specify; if you do not know the published server name, in Scene7, go to Setup, then Application Setup.)

Note:

The Scene7 root path is the Scene7 folder AEM connects to. It can be narrowed down to a specific folder.

Caution:

Depending on the size of the Scene7 folder, importing a root folder can take a long time. In addition, Scene7 data could exceed the AEM storage. Ensure you are importing the correct folder. Importing too much data can stop your system.

Click OK. AEM saves your configuration.

Note:

If you are reconnecting:

When reconnecting to Scene7 on publish, you may need to reset the password on publish or reconnecting will not work. This is not an issue on the author instance.

If you modify values such as your region, company name, you must reconnect to Scene7. If configuration options have been modified but not saved, AEM erroneously still indicates that the configuration is valid. Be sure to reconnect.

Enabling the Adobe CQ Scene7 Dam Listener

You must enable the Adobe CQ Scene7 Dam Listener, which is disabled by default.

Adding configurable timeout to Scene7 Upload workflow

When an AEM instance is configured to handle video encoding through Dynamic Media Classic (Scene7), by default, there is a 35-minute timeout on any upload job. To accommodate potentailly longer-running video encoding jobs, you can configure this setting:

Navigate to http://localhost:4502/system/console/configMgr/com.day.cq.dam.scene7.impl.Scene7UploadServiceImpl.

Change the number as desired in the Active job timeout field. Any non-negative number is accepted with the unit of measure in seconds. By default, this is set to 2100.

Note:

Best practice: Most assets are ingested within minutes at most (for example, images). But in certain instances - larger videos for example - the timeout value should be increased to 7200 seconds (2 hours) to accommodate long processing time. Otherwise, this Scene7 upload job is marked as UploadFailed in the JCR metadata.

Tap or click Save.

Configuring Autouploading from AEM Assets

You can configure AEM Assets so that any digital assets that you upload to the digital asset manager are automatically updated to Scene7 if the assets are in a CQ target folder.

If properly configured, when an asset is added into AEM Assets, it will automatically be uploaded and published to Scene7.

Note:

The maximum file size for automatic uploading from AEM Assets to Scene7 is 500 MB.

To configure autouploading from AEM Assets:

Tap or click the AEM icon and navigate to Deployment > Cloud Services, tap or click Scene7, and select your configuration in Scene7.

Click the Advanced tab and select the Enable Automatic Upload check box and click OK. You now need to configure the DAM Asset workflow to include uploading to Scene7.

Navigate back to the AEM welcome page and click Workflows. Double-click the DAM Update Asset workflow to open it.

In the sidekick, navigate to the Workflow components, and select Scene7. Drag Scene7 to the workflow and click Save. Assets added to AEM Assets in the target folder will automatically be uploaded to Scene7.

Note:

When adding assets after automating, if they are not placed in the CQ target folder, they are not uploaded to Scene7.

AEM embeds all the metadata as XMP before uploading it to Scene7, so all properties on the metadata node are available in Scene7 as XMP.

Configuring the state (published/unpublished) of assets pushed to Scene7

If you are pushing assets from AEM Assets to Scene7, you can either publish them automatically (default behavior) or push them to Scene7 in an unpublished state.

You may not want to publish assets immediately on Scene7 if you want to test them in a staging environment before going live. You can use AEM with Scene7's Secure Test environment to push assets directly from Assets into Scene7 in an unpublished state.

S7 assets remain available via secure preview. Only when assets are published within AEM do the S7 assets also go live in production.

If you want to publish assets immediately when pushing them to Scene7, you do not need to configure any options. This is the default behavior.

However, if you do not want assets pushed to Scene7 to publish automatically, this section describes how to configure AEM and Scene7 to do this.

Prerequisites to push assets to Scene7 unpublished

Before you can push assets to Scene7 without publishing them, you must set up the following:

Known Limitations for pushing assets in unpublished state

If you use this feature, please note the following limitations:

There is no support for version control.

If an asset is already published in AEM and a subsequent version is created, that new version will be immediately published live to production. Publish upon activation only works with the initial publish of an asset.

Note:

If you want to publish assets instantly, best practice is to keep Enable Secure Preview set to Immediately and use the Enable Automatic Upload feature.

Setting the state of assets pushed to Scene7 as unpublished

Note:

If a user publishes the asset in AEM, it automatically triggers the S7 asset to the production/live asset (the asset will no longer be in secure preview/unpublished).

Click the Advanced tab. In the Enable Secure View drop-down menu, select Upon AEM Publish Activation to push assets to Scene7 without publishing. (By default, this value is set to Immediately, where Scene7 assets are published immediately.)

You can check this by navigating to a Scene7 component on a page in AEM and clicking Edit. The asset will have the secure preview server listed in the URL. After publishing in AEM, the server domain in the file reference gets updated from the preview URL to the production URL.

Enabling Scene7 for WCM

Enabling Scene7 for WCM is required for two reasons:

To enable the drop-down list of universal video profiles for page authoring. Without this, the Universal Video Preset drop-down is empty and cannot be set.

If a digital asset is not in the target folder, you can upload the asset to Scene7 if you enable Scene7 for that page in the page properties and drag and drop the asset on a Scene7 component. Normal inheritance rules apply (meaning that child pages will inherit the configuration from the parent page).

When enabling Scene7 for the WCM, note that as with other configurations, inheritance rules apply. You can enable Scene7 for WCM in either the touch-optimized or classic user interface.

Enabling Scene7 for WCM in the Touch-Optimized User Interface

To enable Scene7 for WCM in the touch-optimized UI:

Tap or click the AEM icon and navigate to Sites and then the root page of your web site (not language specific).

In the toolbar, select the settings icon and tap or click Open Properties.

Configuring universal presets

Enabling MIME type-based Assets/Scene7 upload job parameter support

You can enable configurable Scene7 upload jobs parameters that are triggered by the synchronization of Digital Asset Manager/Scene7 assets.

Specifically, you configure the accepted file format by MIME type in the OSGi (Open Service Gateway initiative) area of the AEM Web Console Configuration panel. Then, you can customize the individual upload job parameters that are used for each MIME type in the JCR (Java Content Repository).

Importing assets from an existing Scene7 company account may take a long time to show in AEM. Ensure that you designate a folder in Scene7 that does not have too many assets (for example, the root folder will often have too many assets).

If you would like to test drive the integration, you may want to have the root folder point to a subfolder only, instead of the entire company.

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